g a knot of
Germans just ahead of him, tossed a hand grenade among them. As a wisp
of fog shuts out a view, so the smoke of the grenade hid the group of
Huns for a moment. And when a swirl of the air lifted the smoke
curtain, a gray heap on the ground was all that remained. It was like
some vision of the night, constantly changing.

On and on they rushed, shouting and shooting, yelling and being yelled
at. They panted for breath, their tongues clove to their dry mouths,
they suffered horribly for water, but there was only blood about
them.

Forward they surged. So great was the first rush that they fairly were
carried--it did not seem that they took themselves--beyond the last of
that particular line of German trenches. Now they were actually on the
open ground beyond--the space where the Huns had their reserves, and
these were now quickly thrown into the battle.

Clip after clip of cartridges had been used by the boys, and they were
drawing on their reserve supply now. But the battle was not going with
the same rush. The Germans were holding even as a desperate eleven
holds when it is on its own goal line and the opponents are madly
striving to shove it over and out of the way, that a touchdown may be
made.

Following the instructions they had received, the Americans began to
look for what shelter they could find--a hole in the ground, a heap
of dirt, the body of some fallen man, a slain horse, a heap of
rubbish, a dismantled machine gun, anything that, for a time, would
fend off a bullet.

The first, or shock-wave, of troops had gotten as far as it was
advisable to go, and they must wait a moment for reinforcements and
for the artillery to come up. So it was that they threw themselves
flat, to escape the storm of bullets that drove into their very
faces.

There was no question, now, of surprising the enemy. He was fully
awake to his danger, and had rushed all his available troops into the
conflict. He had an unusually large number of machine guns, and on
these he depended more than on artillery or rifle fire to break up the
attack. And nothing more effectual could have been chosen. Only, the
Americans were determined not to be stopped.

Hastily they began entrenching, digging shallow ditches in which to
find shelter. It does not take much of a mound of earth to provide a
shield against rifle or machine-gun bullets, and in ten minutes an
advancing body of troops can provide themselves with temporary
protecti